Not all that many, but I defiantly try to keep current on them. I've had a blast with Bastion so far and enjoyed the crap out of Limbo, Scott Pilgrim, and Super Meat Boy last year. Summer of Arcade is one of the major perks Microsoft has going right now for sure. Really come out big every year.

Mixture of stealth, action, magic in what looks similar to a London version of Half Life 2's City 17. The city's concept was actually created by Viktor Antonov, the same dude who designed City 17. Again looks like London, but with a mix of old fashioned and futuristic elements. The game is mission based...but is said to borrow gameplay and story telling elements from games like Half-Life, Bioshock, Thief, and Deus Ex.

The game is being created by Arkane studios, which is a dream team of sorts. Art director, Viktor Antonov, was a former art director for Valve and the mind behind Half-Life's art design and the co-creative director, Harvey Smith, is the co-creator of Deus Ex.

I may have to shelve my plan on playing and finishing Oblivion before Deus Ex comes out. Damn game still hasnt come in the mail yet. I dont think I'll have the time. I'll probably set my sights to Nier or Enslaved or something. Not sure yet.

Enslaved is a very good game. It's defiantly a change up from a lot of games out there these days too. Very vibrant color palette and high overall production values. The gameplay is pretty forgettable, but it's something that's a lot of fun to play for sure.

I've heard good things about Nier, but I've also heard some pretty bad things about it as well.

Yeah, I need something that will take about that long to play as well. NCAA would usually be perfect, but I'm burned out. Getting into an FPS again for a week or two would probably be ideal, but that just feels like too much work.

I tried playing Madden 11 at a friends and once again All madden mode just raped us with the stupidest things possible. It was 14-0 within the first forty seconds and we hadn't even touched the ball. It was just stupid haha

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Originally Posted by WMD

Jesse realizing Walt was Santa Claus could really shake things up.

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Originally Posted by gpngc

I don't know how old you are, but if you can get to 24/25 without getting arrested or killed, you've done well for yourself lol.

I've heard good things about Nier, but I've also heard some pretty bad things about it as well.

Well....I'm four and a half hours into it and I think it's really solid. It has really surprised me, actually. I didnt think it would feel as polished as it has. Most non-AAA RPGs happen to be pretty damn shoddy. That's not to say it's even close to perfect, but in comparison to most budgeted RPGs, it's very strong. It's such a weird experience...but I like it. Why is it weird? Because it crams so many different gameplay elements into the game. It is certainly an RPG first off, full of tons of quests and what not. But it blends together so many different things. It seemingly borrows elements from God of War, Monster Hunter, Bayonetta, Harvest Moon, Zelda, Diablo, Shadow of the Colossus, old school Final Fantasy, Braid, the Last Remnant, Resident Evil, etc. It's all over the place in regards to the gameplay, but it works. You'll spend time hacking n slashing, you'll spend time in a top down view, spend time in more of a 2D view when entering some buildings ala braid, you'll also see some 2D platforming, you can harvest crops, hunt wildlife, ride boars, there are truly epic boss battles with wondefully designed monsters of gigantic scale, you can talk to every NPC in the game, granted they may not have much to say, other than a few lines, but everyone can be interacted with. It's pretty crazy.

They put a lot into this game. And I didnt even get to the story, which is weird as hell. lol. It def. has me interested, though. And surprisingly enough, the voice acting is actually not that bad. Normally there can be some translation issues, which could lead to some really odd sounding conversation. But really, other than the weird story...you cant really blatantly tell that it's a Japanese developed game. The voice work is actually good, after you get passed the opening sequences, and the score happens to be amazing.

That said, there are some things I dont like...first off, the primary villain, "the shades" are horribly designed. They're just a bunch of yellow lines in the shape of either humanoids or little creatures. Pretty lame. I also dont like the fact that they seem to endlessly respawn even after clearing an area of them. I also dont believe there is any fast travel. So, you'll be back tracking a lot and have to take long trips to the same areas often.

As I say with a lot of games...it's not for everyone, but I def. think RPG fans should give it a try, for sure. You've never played a game like this, it's a very unique gaming experience. And it's a game that tons of people dont even know about and it's already in the bargin bin.